ABSTRACT
The Cooperative Extension Service is a unique achievement in American education. It is an agency for change, a catalyst for individual and group action with a history of nearly 70 years of public service. Extension has defined its role as education, even though the subject matter and audiences have changed over time. A desire to identify Extension's contribution to the public good, coupled with the current period of budget tightening, have led to a greater emphasis on Extension evaluation. Extension was the organization best equipped to attack informal educational problems of production agriculture and rural living. The federal contribution is distributed to states in the form of formula and earmarked funds. Formula funding is an appropriation that is distributed to the state Extension Services on the basis of a formula established by legislation. Most state Extension services have utilized a planning-by-objectives approach to program planning and reporting.
